Snoring is a widespread problem often having serious social impact.
Snoring occurs during any stage of sleep, of which, upon awakening, there is usually no recall. Sometimes a snorer is abruptly awakened, perhaps by his own snoring, but has only a vague recollection of the instant of awakening. His awareness of his own snoring is very brief and only momentary. In most instances, he soon forgets that he was aroused by his own snoring noise and starkly will deny that he was snoring. Therefore, because of the lack of awareness of snoring, a snorer may realize, in an intellectual way, that he does snore, but usually does not believe, in a passionate personal way, the magnitude of the impact of his snoring on others. Because of the lack of awareness while sleeping, the subject is unable to control that physically audible behavior by the exercise of his own decision. As a result, many procedures and devices have been tried to assist a snorer in overcoming his problem.
For example, (1) uncomfortable objects, such as balls, have been sewn into the back of a sleeping garment, in an effort to prevent the snorer from sleeping on his back. This is seldom efficacious, because the snorer continues to snore in the now uncomfortable position, or, if he changes position, continues to snore in a new posture. It is to be noted that snoring can take place in any sleeping posture.
As another example, (2) sleep learning techniques, in which a recorded message is played back to the snorer while he sleeps, the message counseling him to try to stop snoring and how to do so, have been attempted. These attempts have not been successful, any more so than the attempts to instill academic knowledge by sleep learning.
The system of the invention is based on the following principles:
A. Snoring is to be detected by a sound sensing device or by a human attendant promptly when it commences and is to be treated immediately.
B. The snorer, upon detection of snoring, is to be promptly awakened by aversive reinforcement, said aversive reinforcement being mildly unpleasant, initially.
C. When awakened the snorer must purposefully respond by switching off the aversive reinforcement.
D. The snorer then recieves two brief pleasant stimulations.
E. The snorer must continue to hold the aversive stimuli off for a predetermined period of time.
F. The snorer then relaxes and returns to sleep.
G. There are several aversive reinforcement of different kinds available, and these are used at different times, either in combination or separately. Thus, the snorer does not become habituated to any one aversive reinforcement and continues to be easily awakened when he commences to snore. Furthermore, an automatic sequence of different, progressively more unpleasant, stimuli is available.